Motion Blur Reduction for LCD Video/Graphics Processors

1. A method of reducing motion blur in a liquid crystal cell, the method comprising the steps of: converting a previous picture frame from an RGB color space into a YUV color space; storing a luminance component in the YUV color space related to the previous picture frame; converting a current picture frame from an RGB color space into the YUV color space; determining an overdrive factor based on a difference between a luminance component in the current picture frame in the YUV color space and the stored luminance component; creating a modified luminance component by applying the overdrive factor only to the luminance component of the current picture frame in the YUV color space; and converting the modified luminance component and color components of the current picture frame back into an RGB color space for display in the liquid crystal cell; thereby increasing the transition speed from one luminance level to another.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said creating the modified luminance component comprises assigning a value to the modified luminance component based on a function that relates to said difference.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said creating the modified luminance component comprises assigning a value to the modified luminance component based on said difference multiplied by the overdrive factor.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said creating the modified luminance component further comprises adding the value of the luminance component related to said previous picture frame.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said creating modified luminance component further comprises adding the value of the luminance component of said current picture frame.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the overdrive factor is a variable factor that depends on a magnitude of said difference.

7. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the overdrive factor is a variable factor that depends on a magnitude of a luminance component.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the overdrive factor is obtained from a look-up table.

9. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the modified luminance component is created by assigning a value to the modified luminance component, which value is directly obtained from a predetermined look-up table.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the luminance component of each picture frame is stored in a frame memory.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein motion blur reduction processing shares access to the frame memory with any other video processing that acquires a previous and a current luminance component.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein said any other video processing that acquires a previous and a current luminance component comprises temporal noise reduction processing.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein said any other video processing that acquires a previous and a current luminance component comprises motion detection processing.

14. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of: setting a threshold value for motion blur reduction, wherein a drive voltage is applied to the liquid crystal cell if the value of said difference exceeds the threshold value.

15. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of: setting a threshold value for temporal noise reduction wherein noise reduction is performed on said difference if a value of said difference is smaller than a temporal noise reduction threshold value.

16. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the threshold value for motion blur reduction is set equal to a threshold value for temporal noise reduction.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the luminance component is stored with a resolution that is lower than a full panel resolution.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the stored luminance component comprises a luminance component of the previous picture frame.

19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the stored luminance component comprises a modified luminance component of the previous picture frame.

20. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores computer-executable instructions that implement a method of reducing motion blur in a liquid crystal cell, the method comprising the steps of: converting a previous picture frame from an RGB color space into a YUV color space; storing a luminance component in the YUV color space related to the previous picture frame; converting a current picture frame from an RGB color space into the YUV color space; determining an overdrive factor based on a difference between a luminance component in the current picture frame in the YUV color space and the stored luminance component; creating a modified luminance component by applying the overdrive factor only to the luminance component of the current picture frame in the YUV color space; and converting the modified luminance component and color components of the current picture frame back into an RGB color space for display in the liquid crystal cell; thereby increasing the transition speed from one luminance level to another.

21. A system for reducing motion blur in a liquid crystal cell, the system comprising: means for converting a previous picture frame from an RGB color space into a YUV color space; means for storing a luminance component in the YUV color space related to a the previous picture frame; means for converting a current picture frame from an RGB color space into the YUV color space; means for determining an overdrive factor based on a difference between a luminance component in said current picture frame in the YUV color space and the stored luminance component; means for creating a modified luminance component by applying a drive factor only to the luminance component of the current picture frame in the YUV color space; and converting the modified luminance component and color components of the current picture frame back into an RGB color space for display in the liquid crystal cell; thereby increasing the transition speed from one luminance level to another.

22. The system according to claim 21 , said system being arranged in a scanning backlight system.